


Dear Ms. Berrigan

by tigerbright



Category: Doctor Who, White Collar
Genre: Adventure, Childhood, Epistolary, Found Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-03
Updated: 2019-02-03
Packaged: 2019-10-21 18:59:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17648150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tigerbright/pseuds/tigerbright
Summary: Dear Ms. Berrigan,My foster mum Moira says I should write to thank you about getting me unstuck from the suspension bridge. It was loads of fun, though, being up there, once I knew a smart person like you was coming to get me. I was sad when you had to go back to your hotel and then fly back to New York, acos you told me stories about working for the FBI. Is that like security services here? Moira doesn’t know, but I sneak out of bed and watchSpooks.Yours,Bill PottsAged 10





	Dear Ms. Berrigan

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Karios](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Karios/gifts).



> Many thanks to Vae for beta and Brit-picking. This was fun to write :)

Keepers’ Lane  
Bristol  
BS7 9BX

April 13, 2001

Dear Ms. Berrigan,

My foster mum Moira says I should write to thank you about getting me unstuck from the suspension bridge. It was loads of fun, though, being up there, once I knew a smart person like you was coming to get me. I was sad when you had to go back to your hotel and then fly back to New York, acos you told me stories about working for the FBI. Is that like security services here? Moira doesn’t know, but I sneak out of bed and watch _Spooks_.

Yours,  
Bill Potts  
Aged 10

PS. Do you know if anyone got a snap of me up there?

 

Federal Bureau of Investigation  
26 Federal Plaza  
New York, NY 10278

April 20, 2001

Dear Bill,

It was lovely to meet you. You seem like a smart and adventurous young lady. Just remember what I told you, now, that you should never go wandering without letting people know where you’re going and having at least 20p in your pocket for the phone. Lucky that you were climbing around a tourist attraction, but I can see you are hardly one to stick with the tried and true.

The FBI is a bit like security services, in that we work for the government of the country instead of the government of the state or the city. But at the same time, not at all. Still, I was able to ask security services for some snaps of you from the CCTV cameras. You do look like you were having fun. Hope you enjoy them.

Yours,  
Diana Berrigan

=====

Keepers’ Lane  
Bristol  
BS7 9BX

November 16, 2001

Dear Ms. Berrigan,

Moira has a new boyfriend. I hate him. He looks at me like I should be in the rubbish bin, or maybe living in an orphanage. (As if. That’s why I’ve got a foster mum, they don’t do orphanages any more.) And I’d just got used to the last one.

So I do a lot of walking about. I’ve taken lots of pictures of Bristol Castle (thank you for helping Moira pay for the camera) because you said you miss the old buildings. It was hard to choose just three to send!

I have to walk pretty far, though, given as we’re in council flats. And I walked right over to Temple Church, yesterday, and that’s twelfth century, and I bet you don’t have anything so old in New York. Is there even anything that old in the United States?

School is boring and fun all at the same time. I like watching people, and I have a project to write about a living famous person. Got any suggestions? I just can’t decide, except that I want to write about a girl.

Yours,  
Bill

 

378 7th St  
Brooklyn, NY 11215

November 23, 2001

Dear Bill,

Sorry to hear things at home aren’t going so well. Walking is terrific, though. You can do ever so much thinking.

The photos are wonderful; you’ve got quite the eye for detail and framing. You might make a good security services agent yourself someday.

It’s true that there aren’t many old buildings over here, though New York has more than some. Cambridge (the Massachusetts one) has a building from 1720, and there are some old houses on the Hudson River near here. 

Yesterday my girlfriend and I went to a Thanksgiving dinner at her parents’ house. That’s an odd holiday, if you think about it. Kids get told this story about the brave Pilgrims who came across the ocean escaping religious persecution, but they were Puritans the same as Oliver Cromwell. And the kiddies act out stories of the brave Europeans being rescued by “Indians,” if you please. Not many buildings left from the Native American tribes, nor many Native Americans, either. But I’ve been out to Arizona and seen some buildings from before Europeans came here, and they’re at least as good as anything that old in England, even the Roman things.

As for your project, I’d write about Emma Watson, if you’ve seen the Harry Potter movie. If not, you should, it captures the book pretty well.

Oh, and if you call your foster mum Moira, I think you can leave off calling me Ms. Berrigan.

Yours,  
Diana 

=====

November 5, 2008

Dear Diana,

I heard that Barack Obama was elected President. That’s brilliant. I watched him and Mrs. Obama walk down the street on the news. She is just the most beautiful person I have ever seen.

I keep hearing that England is better for Black people, but we haven’t got many Black MPs, have we?

Yours,  
Bill

PS. I feel I’ve let you down; I know I did well on my GCSE, but I don’t think I’ll do so well on my A-levels. I’m sorry, Diana, and you kept tutoring me all these years.

 

November 10, 2008

Dear Bill,

I’m so sorry I’ve only had time to text and not write. But you can do it! Things always look so dark when everyone around you says “Your whole life depends on this exam.” And my whole job security is based around exams. 

I hope things do turn out well with President and Mrs. Obama. You’re right; she is one of the most beautiful people I’ve ever seen. (Fortunately, Christie agrees.)

Chin up. I’ll have a great work story for you soon -- my boss Peter caught a forger he’s been after for years.

Yours,  
Diana

=====

October 13, 2014

Dear Diana,

I don’t know why you keep talking to a screw-up like me when you are so effing brilliant, I really don’t. Here I am working as a canteen assistant, of all things, because it’s the only way I could get to go to university. I’m not even a real student!

Still, I do get to watch people, and I do get to sit in on some classes, and no-one bothers me for being there so long as I take notes. I even write the essays, though of course I can’t hand them in. I’ve enclosed one I’m pretty proud of. It’s about the engineering of aerial screws. Maybe that Neal can mark it for me, given that it includes Leonardo da Vinci. Or is that too sciencey for him?

Yours,  
Bill

 

October 17, 2014

Dear Bill,

We all hit our bumps in the road. “That Neal,” as you call him, certainly had his share. His college degrees are 100% fictitious. 

The very fact that you keep yourself close to learning just makes it better. Think how far ahead you’ll be when you get to be a matriculated student.

Neal loves your essay, by the way, and has scribbled comments all over it. I hope you can read them. 

Yours,  
Diana


End file.
